Category: Microradio

The demonstration of low-power civil disobedience hasn’t even begun yet, but the FCC is now well-warned of WNFC’s existence and plans. Last night organizer Stacie Trescott served on a panel with Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps at a town hall meeting on the future of media in Dearborn, Michigan.
Trescott’s place on the panel gave her five minutes to talk about the need for the expansion of LPFM – and how the pending proposal to do so won’t help her community.
She pulled no punches: Continue reading “WNFC Meets FCC, Throws Gauntlet”

A lot has happened during this latest hiatus.
Site-wise, the Enforcement Action Database is up to date. The Database includes FCC activity reported in August as well as some significant backfilling. If you check the yearly graph, 2003 now almost matches 1998 in the amount of FCC activity: significant because that was the year the NAB declared war on microradio, forcing the FCC to ramp up its pirate-busting. Draw your own conclusions (mine are still mostly unformed). Updates to Truthful Translations and the Schnazz to follow soon.
As for news, here’s the highlight breakdown: Continue reading “Back In Action: Scene Report Summary (August)”

Knoxville’s First Amendment Radio reports the break-in happened two weeks ago. The station broadcasts from a trailer (ex-crackhaus) and have put a lot of work into the place. The thieves basically made off with stuff that was not bolted down: a computer, monitor, printer, small television, two CD/MP3 players, microphone and headphones, and assorted cabling. Nothing in the transmission chain was touched.This thread on the station’s message board hints that there may have been witnesses (including a phone company worker who inadvertently loaned the burglars some wire cutters), yet it remains to be seen just how hard a police force will work on a case involving a pirate station as victim.

As the FCC is only letting 400 people into its public hearing on “localism” in Monterey, California this Thursday – and only a portion of those 400 will be allowed to speak – the public is being encouraged to gather outside the hearing venue and make some noise.
They’ll be supplemented by microradio activists who plan to conduct a remote broadcast in protest of the general lack of public access to radio (as well as to the hearing itself). At least one group may set up a PA system to relay the events inside to those outside; perhaps some of the hearing may also be rebroadcast this way. Continue reading “Limited Audience in Monterey Provides Fodder for Protest”

Coming soon to a DVD player near you: Making Waves, a documentary about a cluster of microradio stations in one Arizona city and the people behind them. I suspect it will an interesting cross-section of American microbroadcasting in a post-LPFM world. Expect a review here in the future.
The 66-minute show premiered at the Arizona Film Festival in April and ran for a week on Tucson’s public access cable channel last month. Producer Michael Lahey says a web site about the work is forthcoming. Continue reading “New Microradio Documentary Features Tucson Stations”

California: Free Radio Santa Cruz issued a news release about the recent visit by FCC field agents David Doon and David Hartshorn, accompanied by a couple of bad photos of the duo in action. This supplements the audio clip captured by Skidmark Bob. Freak Radio is now operating at 101.1 FM and according to the Davids only merited a visit for their long-running unlicensed status, not because of any complaints of interference or spurious emissions.Montana: The same morning as Freak Radio’s visit, FCC agents with armed backup executed a raid against Burton James’ mobile home microstation in Butte. His operation had been on the air for three years there and James claims to have been an active microbroadcaster for more than a decade in multiple states. He shrugged off the raid, according to the Montana Standard: “‘It really doesn’t matter,’ he said. ‘The transmitter was eight years old. It’s on its way out. I was intending to get another one.'” Continue reading “Scene Reports: California, Montana, Michigan”

Unabashedly stolen from Free Radio Santa Cruz, which is fleshing out a site redesign post-move. Its online home is now being maintained by Corporate Swine.
I really liked the animated banner about “PROVING FCC INCOMPETENCE” and was sorry to see it go, but bits like this more than make up for it.
(Clicking on the pic at right takes you to the station’s donate page, which contains the larger original.)
Mad props on the Photoshop! Continue reading “Unlikely Mikey”

Multiple tidbits of interest…Santa Cruz:Freak Radio successfully moved to its new location recently, completing the entire transition in about five hours. It sounds like it was well-rehearsed, although Skidmark Bob reports their online stream needs “a little work.”Victorville: On March 31 the FCC issued a $20,000 Notice of Apparent Liability to Stanley Mayo for operating unlicensed transmitters on both the AM and FM bands. Mayo’s “KSRX” first began broadcasting in the summer of 2002 on 660 KHz but was also later heard on 91.3 MHz. Mayo received at least four visits from field agents out of Los Angeles, as well as two warning notices, over an 18-month span before the FCC moved for the dough. Continue reading “Scene Report: California”